First Segment:

Each student team or guild will pick three locations on the map of Europe where they would like to live and that would serve their trading needs to make them prosperous. The guilds should mark their choices on a map and be prepared to defend them in front of the class. Guilds will consult a map of Europe in an atlas. They will discover if the location they chose is a city today. They will decide what that means. The guild decides on a name and home city-state, indicating this on their map.

Second Segment:

Distribute the factors list. With the class, identify the factors that are part of physical environment and those that people create. Ask each group to make a matrix to organize the factors affecting their guide. Label the matrix with the following titles: "Factors That Help" (make our guild stronger, build common ground and create a strong trading center), "Factors That Hurt" (would cause problems or weaken the guild). Artisans from the guild may decorate or illustrate the matrix and map. A guild "master" should be selected to speak for the group.

Factors List:

Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean Sea, artisans, disease, citizenship requirements (must live there 25 years to qualify), Doge (ruler), canals, merchants, taxes, banks, deep port, literacy of population, war, spices, maps, population growth, silk, a navy, floods, lack of fertile land, seafarers, Christianity, islands.

1. Each guild will post its maps and matrix. The guild "masters" will be called to justify their decisions. The group grade is based on inclusion of all the factors on their matrix, the map, being finished on time, neatness and cooperation.

2. An alternative would be to give the following quiz to each student: 

· Select three factors and explain how these affect the work of a guild during the Renaissance. 

· Select one of the factors that still could contribute to a modern city/nation being strong or weak. Why?